Game Boy in Disguise: When a Handheld Became a Lifestyle Object

Everything here is shaped like a Game Boy. Nothing here is a Game Boy. Welcome to the disguise.

There is a specific silhouette that anyone who grew up in the 1990s can draw from memory. A grey brick, a little taller than it is wide, with a screen near the top, a bump of a directional pad, two round buttons and that unmistakable curved corner at the bottom right. It belongs to the Nintendo Game Boy. And at some point over the last three decades, that shape quietly walked out of the games aisle and just kept going.

What it found on the other side was a whole world of things that had nothing to do with playing games. The Game Boy became a template. Manufacturers, both officially licensed and cheerfully unlicensed, stamped its outline onto radios and clocks, mugs and money boxes, building blocks and bubble gum. The console turned into a lifestyle object, a shorthand for an entire decade, worn on wrists, framed on walls and torn open from sweet packets. This is the hub for our ongoing look at the Game Boy in disguise, and the story splits neatly into four collections.

Part 1: The Family of Fake Game Boys

A radio, a clock, a wristwatch, a calculator and a pair of walkie talkies, every single one moulded into the Game Boy shape and not one of them able to run a cartridge. Meet the little family of gadgets, from the 1993 Radio Boy to the 1997 Calculator Boy, that only pretend to be a console.

Everything here is shaped like a Game Boy. Nothing here is a Game Boy. Welcome to the disguise.

Part 1: The Family of Fake Game Boys

Part 2: On the Desk and Around the House

Officially licensed clocks, mugs, coasters, watches and even shower foam that smuggle the DMG-01 outline into your kitchen, your bathroom and your desk drawer. Proof that the Game Boy was just as happy at home as it was in your pocket.

Proof that in the 1990s you could sell almost anything, as long as it was grey and had a d-pad printed on it.

Part 2: On the Desk and Around the House

Part 3: Build It, Wear It, Frame It

Two brick-built consoles, one official Lego set and one unlicensed kit, a Nintendo mini replica bundled with Donkey Kong trading cards, and a pair of Bluetooth glasses. Four Game Boys that were never meant to be switched on, only assembled, worn or displayed.

Enjoy your Game Boy - Brick by Brick

Part 3: Build It, Wear It, Frame It

Part 4: Cards, Stickers and Sweets

Gum, stickers, cards, a toy egg, promotional tissues, an eraser and a mini Game Boy that plays music. A rummage through the sweet, papery and disposable tie-ins that prove the Game Boy sold absolutely everything.

The only Game Boy thats made for your taste buds

Part 4: Cards, Stickers and Sweets

And if you are after a Game Boy in disguise that actually plays, the pocket-sized Nintendo Mini Classics mini-handhelds get their own feature, complete with real, playable Game and Watch style games.

Between them, these collections show just how far a games console can travel once its shape becomes more famous than its games. Pick a category above and start digging, or browse the whole story, and the rest of the collection, over at the Game Boy Museum.